Grind My Gears
by CherryBerry12
Summary: When Izuna needs something fixed, there's only one inventor he trusts. Izuna/Tobirama, Steampunk AU for Naruto RarePair Bingo


Izuna hears five consecutive whistles and knows he's reached his stop. He hops off the steam carriage and approaches the Tinker's shop, just barely able to make out the ruddy black and white blur of his storefront. After a few minutes of wracking his brain for the exact code, he knocks in the unnecessarily complicated pattern he was taught before he hears a sigh from within, and the sound of what is certainly someone angrily slamming their tools down onto a table.

The Tinker's footsteps don't sound very amused either. Not one bit. Izuna hears a long procession of heavy stomps and then the door clicks several times, a number of gears and locks shifting before he feels a rush of cold air when it swings open, revealing the dark cave of the Tinker's shop.

"You again," the Tinker growls. Izuna can't make out what he's doing, but he hears the Tinker shift before he hears an obnoxious sigh. "Well, give it to me then," he says, holding out his hand expectantly.

"It's good to see you too, buddy!" Izuna chirps, handing the Tinker his spectacles. They're the only thing capable of correcting his eyesight after years of working in his family's foundry, the vision literally burned out of them. His vision is barely more than a series of blurs and smears of color anymore, far too poor to be able to work around molten metals and countless other hazards.

Good thing the Tinker was so handy!

"These look horrible," the Tinker grumbles, mumbling to himself as he walks further into his shop, back towards his desk. Izuna feels his way there through trial and error, shuffling his feet to avoid tripping over the Tinker's various tables, half-finished metalworks, and, most disconcerting, something unusually soft and squishy against his boots.

Izuna drags his hands over the tables to help him, feeling over a mix of crumpled-up papers and various metal fasteners. He assumes the Tinker's already wrapped up whatever's gone wrong with his invention, but he jumps when the Tinker slams his hand down on his desk.

"Keep your damned dirty hands off my tools, Uchiha," the Tinker snaps. Izuna hears the rustle of fabric and a metallic _shink_ as the Tinker pulls a tool from his pocket and flicks it open.

He's going to take his chances on it being anything other than a pocket knife.

"I'm just feeling around! No need to get so testy. I'm the epitome of careful." Izuna shoots him a crafty grin. "I carry around a lot of… precious goods, if you know what I mean."

The Tinker gives a long suffering sigh and there's a series of _pings _as unscrewed bolts fall to his desk.

"Hopefully you treat this as the most precious of your goods, then, because there are only so many times I am willing to fix these damned glasses."

"Awe, come on now, we both know you love getting to fix up your old inventions. How else would you get to experiment with them?" Izuna doesn't know if the Tinker is watching, but he wiggles his eyebrows at him anyway. "And face it, you _love _getting to see me."

Izuna follows the sound of Tinker's frustrated sigh and the few blurs of movement he can see and, once he's able to find the edge of it, leans down across the Tinker's desk. He can't make out the expression on his face without his spectacles but he can see the telltale red of the Tinker's face tattoos, and he hears his startled jump backwards and grins.

"My brother says—"

"Your brother is a damned gremlin," the Tinker mumbles, and Izuna backs away when he hears the desk chair creak as the Tinker adjusts himself, papers rustling as he leans forward to work. "He is—" and Izuna hears a series of metallic clicks as the Tinker turns on his desk lamp. With his ruined vision it barely makes a difference, is little more than a match in a dark hallway. "—an unbelievable nuisance."

"Aw, but he's cute, right?"

The Tinker doesn't reply, and Izuna takes his fussy silence as begrudging agreement.

"But hey, you don't think he's cuter than I am, do you?"

The Tinker's hands drop down onto his desk. "If you intend to bother me every step of the way, we may very well be here all day."

"Sounds good!" Izuna says, kicking his leg around until he's reasonably certain he can just sit where he is. And so he does, plopping down on the Tinker's concrete floor and stretching out his legs. "Man, does that feel good."

"… Good?"

"I've been walking all day, man!" The steam carriages were literal clockwork, and anyone unfortunate enough not to be at the station on time was, as his brother Madara would say, _shit out of luck_. "'Sides, it's cool in here. Probably gonna be even cooler once I'm able to see all of it."

The shop goes quiet, the Tinker having paused in his work.

Izuna doesn't quite know how to interpret that, and so he shrugs. "I mean, as long as you don't mind me hanging out here, touching all your stuff."

"I—well, no. I… Would not mind that." For once, the Tinker seems to be a little flustered. "Perhaps you might be more comfortable pulling up a chair," he suggests, though Izuna stays put.

A few minutes later the Tinker stops again, placing whatever tool he'd been holding back on his desk.

Izuna perks up. "Are you—"

"Try them on first, and then we will see." The Tinker leans over his desk and holds the spectacles out for Izuna to take. Izuna fumbles his way up and takes them, the metal warm after being in the Tinker's hands for so long.

The Tinker always took his time but damn if it wasn't worth it.

Izuna slips the leather band over his head and pulls his hair through it, adjusting the spectacles over his face with a buckle on the side. He feels for the knob right next to it, letting the lens click through settings until, finally, his vision washes over with clarity and the Tinker's shop is finally brought into focus.

"Wow!" Izuna says, turning around in amazement. "This place is a fucking mess!"

There's a woosh in the air as something flies by his head, too fast for him to see, followed only seconds later by an unfortunate sounding metallic clank.

"Uchiha, if you do not leave my shop this instant—"

—And Izuna makes for the door, just in case. "Love you too, Tobes! Thanks again for the fix up!"

* * *

**A/N:** Another piece down for Naruto RarePair bingo!

Please comment or favorite if you enjoy :) thanks for reading!


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